The White Paper - An Analysis
1944-03 1944 1940s 12 pages British Medical Association THE WHITE PAPER — AN ANALYSIS In this statement the Council of the British Medical Association analyses the White Paper in relation to the principles approved by the Association at its Representative Meeting in September, 1943. For co...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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March 1944
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/95223EE6-245E-4CAC-B5D7-602B6C5DAE9E http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9D56FF0C-4C51-490B-9433-99ACD3AF2CEA |
| Summary: | 1944-03
1944
1940s
12 pages
British Medical Association THE WHITE PAPER — AN ANALYSIS In this statement the Council of the British Medical Association analyses the White Paper in relation to the principles approved by the Association at its Representative Meeting in September, 1943. For convenience the first section is devoted to a statement of those principles and to a summary of the White Paper taken from the abridged edition. PRINCIPLES APPROVED BY THE ASSOCIATION PRINCIPLE A. The health of the people depends primarily upon the social and environmental conditions under which they live and work, upon security against fear and want, upon nutritional standards, upon educational facilities, and upon the facilities for exercise and leisure. The improvement and extension of measures to satisfy these needs should precede or accompany any future organization of medical services. PRINCIPLE B. The efficiency of a country's medical services, both preventive and curative, depends upon the available medical and scientific knowledge, upon the character and extent of medical education, upon the sufficiency and quality of personnel, upon facilities for treatment including institutional accommodation and upon the absence of any economic barriers that impede the utilization of such services. Thus, the sufficiency and quality of personnel and facilities for treatment, including institutional provision should be assured ; in order to improve the country's medical services, the facilities and resources for medical research should be greatly increased and methods devised for their adequate application ; medical education, both undergraduate and post-graduate, should be maintained on a high standard, adapted to modern needs, and brought within the financial resources of any suitable student. Wherever economic barriers prevent an individual citizen taking advantage of medical services such barriers should be removed. PRINCIPLE C. Subject to these general and overriding considerations, the functions of the State should be to co-ordinate existing provision, both official and non-official, to augment it where necessary, and to secure that it is available without economic barrier to all who need it. The State should confine itself within these wide limits, invading the personal freedom of both citizen and doctor only to the extent which the satisfaction of these functions demands. PRINCIPLE D. It is not in the public interest that the State should convert the medical profession into a salaried branch of central or local government service. The State should not assume control of doctors rendering individual or personal health service. The profession rejects any proposal for the control of the future medical service by local authorities as at present constituted. PRINCIPLE E. Free choice as between doctor and patient should be preserved as a basic principle of future health services, and no administrative structure should be approved which does not both permit and encourage such free choice. PRINCIPLE F. It is not in the public interest that the State should invade the doctor-patient relationship. The loyalty and obligation of a doctor rendering personal health service to an individual patient should be to that patient and to none other. PRINCIPLE G. Free choice of doctor should be reinforced by a method of remuneration which relates remuneration to the amount of work done or the number of persons for whom responsibility is accepted. PRINCIPLE H. Every member of the community should be free to consult the doctor of his choice either officially, as when he consults the doctor he has selected under an official service, or privately, as when he consults some other doctor, whether that doctor is a member of an official service or not. Nothing should be done to encourage the splitting of the medical profession into two groups — the official doctors and the non-official doctors. PRINCIPLE I. Consultants and specialists should normally be attached to the hospital. For those persons who wish to be treated in private accommodation, whether part of a hospital or not, private consulting practice should continue. PRINCIPLE J. The central administrative structure should be a corporate body concerned only with civilian health services and should be responsible for all civilian health services. This central administrative body should be advised on medical matters, including personnel, by a medical advisory committee representative of the medical profession which should be at liberty to publish its findings. Locally, new administrative bodies, responsible to the central authority, should cover wide areas and should be representative, directly or indirectly, of the community served and, in appropriate proportion, of the local medical profession and voluntary hospitals. They should be advised on medical matters, including personnel, by local medical
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